Chapter 1

It was a fine night
for a seeking spell. The stars glittered like diamond dust around the
two moons almost in full eclipse and not a single ripple disturbed
their reflection on the lake’s surface. The forest surrounding the
lake was unnaturally silent, but this was Caethes the home of many
silent predators.

“Ah, E’arwin.”
Kegan broke the silence and came up to his companion standing at the
lake’s edge. His anxious yellow eyes darted around as he spoke,
searching for signs of danger. His Elvin friend’s senses were
sharp, but an Alulen’s were sharper. “Are you sure the Calling
led you here?”

“Yes, Kegan,”
E’arwin replied confidently. “This is the place.” He gazed out
over the water. “I can feel it now,” he placed a hand over his
chest. “Pulling at me like a rope around my heart and at the other
end she pulls me closer.”

“How romantic,”
Kegan snorted. The one they sought was E’arwin’s Nirvelli—‘water
child’ in the ancient tongue.

“Not very,”
E’arwin chuckled in response to his friend‘s dry remark. “The
rope binding me to her will soon tighten and if I am not successful
then I’m afraid my heart will break in a most unpleasant manner.
You understand the dangers of my title.”

Indeed, Kegan did.
Born with magical gifts graced upon them by the water goddess
Valzalen, the Nirvelli are vital to survival. Unfortunately,
if left unguided the mortal women's bodies become easily consumed by
their emerging goddess-gifted powers. However, to counter this the
wise Valzalen bestowed the title of Seeker upon the princes of Her
favored people; the Elvin kind. However, the title is a heavy burden,
if a Seeker fails to find his Nirvelli when he feels the
Calling, he can be sure that death will not fail to find him.

E’arwin’s
Calling was unique in that his Nirvelli was from a different
world. There had only been few in ancient Elvin history to find an
off-world Nirvelli. The Elvin people have long lost the
ability to water-travel, a necessary skill to connect to other
worlds, a skill E’arwin would gain through the aid of the eclipsed
moons. If he missed this chance there would be no second one.

“I’m going to
search for her,” E’arwin decided.

The red and
orange-scaled skin on Kegan’s forehead puckered. “The last time
you tried to search for her you gave yourself a headache, a bad one,”
he added.

“Yes. I
remember,” E’arwin replied with a sour frown. “But this is the
place where I shall pull her to me.” He gestured to the lake. “I
should be able to find her easier.”

“Ah, well, if you
believe you can,” Kegan replied knowing there was no way to talk
him out of it.

“I can.”

E’arwin knelt
down to the water and touched the surface. A small ripple appeared.
He closed his eyes and whispered to the water. Kegan stood at his
side watching silently. Beneath the water’s surface a light
appeared. As E’arwin’s whispers grew louder the light grew from a
soft blue to a blazing red.

Violent ripples
distorted the surface of the water above the light. The water bubbled
and steam rose as the ripples became more and more frenzied until
finally the water erupted knocking E’arwin backwards. Kegan
stumbled as he shielded his face from the flying droplets of boiling
water.

E’arwin lay still
where he landed the wind knocked out of him. His chest felt full of
rocks and a blinding pain stabbed him behind the temples.

He smiled.

“E’arwin?”
Kegan asked leaning over him, concerned about the blast as well as
the foolish grin on his face.

“I found her,
Kegan. I found her.”

“Pfft.”

Kat glared at her
so-called friend and roommate, who was not doing too good of a job at
containing her laughter.

“Keeping
laughing, Dannie, and I’ll tell the professor the real reason you
wanted to be a T.A.”

That got her
attention. “You wouldn’t dare,” Dannie narrowed her eyes at
Kat. While Kat had become a teaching assistant for Professor Lumbart
because he was her favorite English Professor and advisor, Dannie
became a teaching assistant because she had the hots for him.

“I would dare, so
help me up.”

Dannie stared at
her and Kat could see her weighing her decision; help her out of the
awkward bridge Kat was doing to keep herself out of a puddle of mud,
or watch her friend struggle to get up and chance her secret getting
out. Dannie took longer than Kat liked to make a decision, but with a
dramatic sigh she helped her friend stand.

“Blech,” Kat
held out her muddy hands. “Reach in my bag and get my tissues.”
Dannie did as requested and a pack of tissues later Kat’s hands
were clean.

“In my defense
you would have laughed your ass off if I fell backwards like that
into the mud trying to avoid that spider web,” Dannie said.

“Yes, but that’s
besides the point. You actually like spiders,” Kat said. She
could not understand her friend’s admiration of the creepy things.

“Yes, but I
wouldn’t like them on my face either,” Dannie said cracking a
smile. Kat couldn’t help it and smiled back. “It wouldn’t have
been that big a deal, either. Aren’t you wearing your swimsuit
underneath your clothes anyway?”

“Yes, but that’s
only because I won’t have much time to get to my swim meet after
this. I can’t be late, I’m competing in the first round and I’ve
already asked Professor Lumbart to let me leave early, which you
should be thanking me for, by the way. Because of me he’s giving
you a ride back to the dorms.”

“I know, right?”
Dannie said instantly turning into a starry-eye teenager. “He’s
seriously the hottest professor on campus. Older men are the way to
go.”

“If you say so,”
Kat said dismissively as she checked on the contents of her backpack.
Thank god, none of filters looked damaged. If she had fallen on her
back no doubt they would have been squished.

“Your fancy
acrobatics saved the day,” Dannie said snickering.

“C’mon, lets
gets to the spot he told us about before some other class stakes
their claim,” Kat said ignoring Dannie’s smart remark. Their
class was called “Stories and Stars: a look at how celestial events
influence writings” and as Professor Lumbart was the head of the
English department it was a great boost for Kat’s resume to be a
T.A. for his class. Besides being the ‘hottest’ professor he was
also really funny and honest with his students. He told it like it
was, whether it was bad or good.

Kat had a secret
crush on him too, not that she would ever admit it to Dannie, but she
admired him above all other professors. If she did chose to go to
graduate school to become an English professor she would want to be
just like him; though she hadn’t decided if she wanted to do that
yet. There were five applications sitting on her desk for internship
opportunities in different editorial offices that needed to be mailed
this week. To teach or not to teach, that was the question.

She had a blast
helping Professor Lumbart teach this class and he let her grade the
papers how she saw fit, he read the papers too but more often than
not agreed with the grade she had given. Dannie was given the task of
grading tests, which she and Proffessor Lumbart did together so that
worked out fine for her.

If there was one
thing Kat learned through all this was that she liked criticizing
other people’s work much more than she liked writing her own. Not
that she couldn’t write well, she just took more pleasure out of
picking apart another’s work and her major guilty pleasure was
getting really bad papers and completely ripping them apart (in a
figurative sense).

“Kat, no one’s
here yet,” Dannie said as they came into the clearing Professor
Lumbart had marked on their map. There was going to be a total solar
eclipse at around two and the Professor had sent them to the clearing
ahead of time to set up and stake out the spot. The clearing was in
the mountain’s woods behind campus. Well, Professor Lumbart called
them hills, Kat called them mountains, anything that required
climbing up rocks was a mountain.

“Good,” Kat
said setting down her bag and plopping down on the ground. “I’m
in no shape to fight off other students.”

“What? You’re
the athlete, how is this any different?”

Kat pointed up at
the sun, which hadn’t even begun to eclipse yet. “It’s freakin’
hot. In a pool it’s nice and cool.”

“Oh, aren’t you
the poet,” Dannie smirked and went to set up the telescope.

Kat ignored her
remark and remained sprawled out on the ground. Dannie was born and
raised in California, Kat was from Massachusetts and wasn’t used to
this damn constant heat even after three years here.

“Kat get off your
lazy butt and help me out,” Dannie said holding two pieces of the
telescope in her hands.

“Yeah, yeah,”
Kat rolled to her feet and went to help her roommate set up for
class.

Professor Lumbart
came right on time with his class of fifteen in tow behind him.
About half of them were in the same shape as Kat was when they came
into the clearing.

“Kat, Dannie,”
Professor Lumbart said trotting over to them, not at all phased by
the hike up. His short brown hair bounced as he came over and behind
his sunglasses he had soft brown eyes and the handsome face of a man
in his early thirties. He was sporting long brown khaki pants, a
long-sleeved tan shirt and a light-weight brown leather jacket. Kat
had to hold back her laughter as she noticed the whip at his hip.

“Professor what’s
with the whip?” Kat asked unable to hold back her smile.

“How else do you
think I got them up here?” He said jerking his thumb at the
students behind him. He frowned in disappointment, “I forget my
hat though.” Indeed it was the only thing missing from his
ensemble. “Did you have any trouble getting this spot?”

“Some drama club
kids dressed in medieval garb came by,” Dannie said. “But Kat
shooed them away. Seriously, Professor you should have seen it. They
started sprouting some nonsense about Kat and I being witches and
that we should disperse, but Kat threw it right back at them saying:

‘Aye, we’d be
witches for King Lumbart III and thou hast bestowed upon us thee task
of staking out this land for his royal procession. And thou hast
given us permission to curse any such creature man or beast who
dare’st challenge his claim.’” Dannie flourished her hand in a
shooing gesture mimicking what Kat had done earlier. “They left
after that in fear of our curse.”

Professor Lumbart
burst out laughing and a few students who heard the story chuckled
along. Kat had to smile too, she knew some of the kids in the drama
club; one was her friend, Tara, from her comparative literature
class. So she knew they left because they were pleased she had played
along, but she also knew that some of them left because they were
shamed that she had out drama-ed them. A few of the kids in the club
Kat had met through Tara were real theater snobs, and no doubt were
shocked that a non-theater student had acted as well as they had. Kat
didn’t mind acting the fool every once in awhile, especially if it
put some snoot in their place.

“Well, then,”
Professor Lumbart said wiping the corner of his eye with his knuckle.
“Lets begin shall we?”

Once the class
started Kat and Dannie sat back while he gave his lecture. Their job
was to hand out the solar eclipse viewing materials and remove the
filter off the telescope when it became a total eclipse. Kat was able
to stay up until the total eclipse, but would have to leave soon
after to make it to her swim meet, but for now she could enjoy the
class.

“Professor,”
Kat said coming up behind him as he peered up at the sun through a
filter as the sun started to come out of its eclipse. “I have to go
now.”

“Of course, go
right ahead. I’ll see you next week,” he said not taking his eyes
off the sun.

Kat waved good-bye
to Dannie at the other side of the clearing and she gave her a thumbs
up in response and mouthed ‘good luck’. Nodding in return Kat
quickly headed to the path that would lead her back down the
mountain. It was easier going back because she didn’t have to carry
her backpack. Dannie was going to bring it back for her and all of
her swim stuff was in her car any way.

She came to the
leveled out part of the path, which meant she was half way down. Up
ahead was a little pond she remembered passing on the way up. As she
came to the pond Kat stopped and stared. In the center of the pond
was an image of a large moon.

Despite knowing
that she was short on time Kat went closer to the pond’s edge and
looked around and up into the surrounding trees, but couldn’t find
the projector creating the image. Her school was a liberal arts
school and had a pretty extensive art program; so Kat had no doubt
that this was a student’s work and a timely theme for the eclipse.
However, there was something different about the image, something
wrong and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

It was really
bothering her. There was something about that moon and the pond that
captured her attention and would not let her go until she figured out
what was missing. Letting her eyes trail down Kat stared at the
water’s edge next to her feet.

And stared.

And stared.

“Oh,” Kat said
in a flat and empty voice as a creeping panic rose within her. Her
eyes knew what they were—or weren’t seeing, but her brain was
doing cartwheels trying to comprehend what it meant.

The pond wasn’t
creating any reflections, not the trees, not the plants around it,
and not herself. There was nothing reflected in the pond except for
that large moon.

Just to be sure Kat
squatted down and leaned over the edge of the water. A ripple
distorted the water and Kat quickly looked up to see what had caused
it. Finding nothing she looked back and found a reflection below her,
except it wasn’t hers.

Before she could
scream the image of the man in the water reached up and grabbed her
outstretched hand and yanked. She screamed as she was pulled into the
pond and water filled her mouth. Before she blacked out a small part
of her found it funny that she, a member of one of the strongest swim
teams in their district, was going to drown.

The water was
still.

The air had a cold,
crisp, early morning smell only present at twilight. A blue glow was
present underneath the water where the reflection of the two moons
aligned as one.

Kegan stood
waiting at the water’s edge, his feet damp from standing too long
in the wet sand as it slowly enveloped his boots. He stood with his
scale-covered muscular arms crossed over his chest and his sharp
yellow eyes scanning the water’s surface for movement. E’arwin
had been under a long time.

A bead of anxious
sweat ran down Kegan’s forehead.

The blue light
faded.

Kegan unfolded his
arms and leaned towards the water. A ripple appeared in along the
surface and he took a hesitant step into the water. A hand broke
through reaching for the air above. E’arwin’s broke through the
water’s surface, in his arms he held an unconscious girl.

“E’arwin!”
Kegan splashed his way to his friend and gently took the girl from
him as he was struggling to keep her and himself above the water.
Hefting the girl over his shoulder Kegan reached out and grabbed
E’arwin’s arm and hauled him back to shore.

“Care…ful,”
E’arwin panted as he collapsed on the ground.

Kegan laid the girl
on the grass and grabbed his friend’s cloak. E’arwin took the
cloak and wrapped it around his bare body; he doubted he could muster
the strength to even dress himself.

“What happened?
Are you ill?” Kegan asked worry creasing his brow. “You are
weaker than a hatchling.”

“I’ll be fine,”
E’arwin assured him and lay down on the sand. “The traveling
spell just took a lot more of my strength than I thought it would.”
He craned his neck to look at the fruits of his labor and smiled
triumphantly. “However, it was well worth the effort.” E’arwin
crawled over to his prize, the sleeping girl. Her breath rose and
fell in the steady rhythm of a deep sleep. He had just enough
strength for one last spell. Touching his lips with his two fore
fingers he whispered the words of the spell and then touched her
lips. A small blue light settled on her mouth before slipping between
her slightly parted lips.

“She’ll be able
to speak and understand our language now,” E’arwin said and
collapsed beside her all of his strength gone. Tomorrow, tomorrow he
would really see what kind of woman his Nirvelli was.

Kegan sighed and
stared down at the two unconscious and soaked through figures. He had
a long night ahead of him. Their camp was further in the forest away
from the water where unpleasant creatures made their home. E’arwin’s
spell would only repel them for so long. Kegan would have to carry
both of them back to camp where he could build a proper fire so they
could get dry and stay warm.

E’arwin lay
asleep, his hand resting on the girl’s shoulder, and a slight smile
on his lips. Kegan could understand his relief and joy at
accomplishing what could have been an impossible task. Looking down
at the girl Kegan could see nothing unique about her except for her
odd boyish clothing and her short cropped black hair. Her skin was
pale and flushed, but it could very well be due to the spell. Her
face was what a human might call pretty, but being an Alula he was no
judge of the beauty of flesh. What he could tell from her body and
weight was that she was a slender woman but had well-used arms and
legs. This girl was used to moving; she might even possess some
strength.

He could tell she
was going to be trouble. From talking with E’arwin Kegan knew his
friend expected his Nirvelli to be a composed, noble, and
graceful woman as were his brother’s Nirvelli. However, just
from looking at this girl’s body Kegan could tell she was going to
be a handful. With one body under each arm Kegan headed back to camp
where the next days would reveal to them what kind of trouble this
girl was going to cause.

On a distant shore
on an island where no natural living thing grew, a presence made
its home. The dark island was surrounded by black water tainted by
death, giving it an unnatural evil presence.

Crashing on the
rocky cliffs the murky waves lapped at the silver-sanded shore. The
water churned in defiance to the moons’ tides and followed no
pattern, but went in and out as they pleased. The waves brought bones
to the shore long since stripped of flesh until the beach looked like
a half dug-up graveyard.

Further along the
island, away from the beach, twisted vegetation grew. Thick vines
oozing sap entwined around rocks, stone-like trees hunched over as if
the very air weighted them down. Cruel predators prowled the island
preying on one another and in turn were preyed upon by the black
carnivorous vines and other meat-hungry plants.

The forest had only
one path and all creatures and plants alike kept it clear. The path
led to the master of the island and none dared challenge its
territory.

The path twisted
deep into the land destroying all in its way. A tall thick tree trunk
wider than five men had once stood in the path’s way. Now, a gaping
tunnel bore though it allowing the path to continue as the great tree
slowly decayed. Even the dark-watered lakes and ponds scattered
around the island parted where the path led. Deeper still the path
wove into the rock mountain at the island’s center. No daylight lit
the dark cave or its various tunnels, but an eerie glow came from the
main cavern where the master, the entity, dwelled.

Near a shallow pool
of mirror-like water the entity was in a deep trance. A ripple
disturbed the still surface of the pool and the entity snapped to
attention. It peered into the water and its own reflection glared
back. The water did not move again and the entity sat back,
dismissing the occurrence.

When the pool began
to hum the entity glanced at it annoyed, but curious. Ripples
appeared at the center emitting from one focal point. It watched the
pool through narrowed eyes. Then, much to its surprise, the focal
point of the ripples split into two. One created violent ripples
making the water’s surface grow unsteady as it created miniature
waves at the sides, while the other point slowly grew still and
faded.

All the ripples
stopped.

The entity frowned,
bothered. Someone had used a great deal of power to make the water
react so; enough power to intrigue him. The entity extended a hand
out over the water and lightly touched the surface with one of its
long skinny fingers creating a new ripple. Within this ripple an
image appeared.

The corner of the entity’s mouth
twisted into a satisfied smile. Silently, it slipped away from the
pool and out of its cave. It walked down the path and smiled
maliciously when it could sense the forest creatures fleeing in fear.
The entity reached the end of the vegetation and the start of the
silver sands. It blinked a moment to adjust to the moons’ light
that the forest and cave had shielded. Luckily there was an eclipse
of the moons, so it was not as bright. It stepped onto the shimmering
shore and stood before the black water churning in excited waves at
its master’s arrival.

Something crunched
underfoot and the entity looked down at the broken bone, one of the
many scattered along the shore. Fish, animal, and human bones
littered the beach. It smiled at the death that the black water
brought here.

A larger wave
crested along the shore and rose up the beach to greet its master,
falling short at the entity’s feet. As the water withdrew it left
behind a full skeleton of a human still clothed in a sailor’s
uniform.

The entity, pleased with the offering,
praised the black water. In response the water’s activity grew
frenzied and the waves became more frequent and energetic. The entity
whispered words of command to the water’s edge and the waves
immediately calmed. It dipped a hand into the water and closed its
eyes.

Its mind traveled
rapidly along the black water’s currents until it found the place
where the power originated. The entity traveled up the river, where
the black water flowed until it found the creatures it sought. The
entity reached into the minds of its slaves and spoke the command of
what it desired:

Find the ones who caused the
disturbance and kill them.

After the orders
were received and understood the entity let its consciousness return
back to its body and it removed its hand from the water. Satisfied
that its commands would be carried out, the entity entered the forest
once again returning to the cave.

Chapters

MegaRogueLegend666:
I love this story so much. It's impossible to describe my excitement with each new chapter in words. The author has such a good writing style, very good descriptions of the fighting and character descriptions/emotions. the plot is also amazing! This fanfic could be a side anime show or novel ......

MavisMcQueen:
"To Live Again" is a well crafted, highly engaging, heart vibrating tale surrounding our favorite Elven King. The author will keep you engrossed until the very end and by that time you will feel so strongly for Clara and the other characters that you will never want it to end...like ever. Thrandu...

europeanlove:
I gotta hand it to you. I love reading. I read books everyday. When the book is good I can read it in probably 13 hours. Your story was amazing. Great prose, very imaginative. Incredible dialogue. I am deeply impressed. Keep it up.

Hawkebat:
Playing both Kotor I & II and Swtor I found the story line interesting and it held me until chapter 35 Very good story and plot flow until then, very few technical errors. I felt that the main character was a bit under and over powered, as it fought for balance. The last few chapters felt too f...

Nymeria:
Really can't get enough of this story. It flows well, it captivates the reader from page 1, and throws you into such a well-written, well conceptualized world that you'll believe it's real. Everything in the book is meshed together really well. From character backgrounds to plot twists, you can t...

Alex Rushmer:
This was not what I expected, but I enjoyed it a lot Malfoy was always one of the characters that I liked a lot, so I like that a lot of this happens between him and Colette. I read the first couple chapters, and I enjoyed your writing style and am excited to see where you take this story. My com...

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This is a very interesting book - mostly because the heroine is quite charming and well rounded, and has very real issues to manage in her life. Most of all,. I loved the view inside of the life of a South Asian girl/woman, the emotional self-talk, the customs and preferences, the expectations a...

Chris Rolfe:
BOY!!! I sure love what Aer-Ki Jyr did with this series. IMHO he captured the essence of what stargate is all about. Thru out the Stargate stories Aer-Ki wrote Stevens and John Shepard some of the main characters in his stories are pursued by a corrupt I.O.A.. All the while Stevens is changing in...

CookieMonster911:
The story overall was an adventure that is appealing to any age. The way the characters develop adds a more human characteristic to the novel. The writing style itself is amazing because you can learn every character's thoughts and emotions. The awkward love triangle and jerk moments adds to the ...

_JosephJacobson_:
I don't understand why this has such low ratings. I really enjoyed it!I think that the whole idea behind the plot had something very special and that was something that I really enjoyed. It was new, unique. I think that some of the writing was a little strange in places but overall it made sense ...

summerstone:
Seriously this is one of the best books I've ever read. The plot is intriguing, I love the narrative style. Its very descriptive and unique, with minimal cliches. It makes for a great read and the sequels are amazing. Totally worth reading. ^^ That's me trying to be professional. But in all hones...

Lauren Suzmeyan-Raine:
I'm so glad you found a place to post your stories. I was horrified when I saw yours had been taken down, they are definitely the best 'reading' stories I've ever read. And I've made it my business to read every one I can. Well done.Lauren